School's Enrollments

            Today part of my duty was calling schools so that they might turn in enrollment figures for the month of July. Starting last year, but with much more tonic persistence this year than previously, the Office of Catholic Schools, marketing department, is asking that schools send enrollment figures, as they stand, for each month. The purpose is two-fold: it allows the school marketing and recruiting departments to see how much work must be done, and secondly, it gives our office an idea of our job towards helping school enrollment go up. Since we have the records of enrollment figures from the past, we compare the values and determine what might be some possible reasons for student fall-out, or, positively, student gain.

            One interesting element when looking at enrollment figures is looking at demographic information. As a history major, when looking at figures, one must always ask, what do the figures represent, what happened and why did it happen? For example, by looking at enrollment figures, I can get an idea in my head of the sort of age group and people who live in a certain area. Thus, when we look at an area where enrollment figures have gone down, location plays a vital role, as many areas that were once family-centered areas have now been infiltrated (in the kindest possible way), by middle-class, middle-aged, single people. Hence, when compared to figures in the past, one can make a pretty good postulation as to when families started migrating and the effect that it had on the schools. Surely enough, numbers match the hypothesis, and reasons that were presented from the onset are proved by the data.